I believe that our world was created by God and I believe that saying that God is love is a truth. I believe that Jesus is the creator of our world incarnate. I believe Jesus rose from the dead through the power of Love.
I don’t have and answer for the question: Does it matter what I do with my days under the sun? God forgives sin so does it matter if I sin? Does it matter if I love my neighbor? Does it matter if I do nothing? I believe that it does matter what I do with my days under the sun. I don’t know how it matters but I believe that it does. Why would God create this world? Why would He give us free will? Why would he allow evil and darkness? Did Jesus’ life matter? Yes! So I believe that my life matters. I believe that everyone’s life matters. I believe that what I do matters and how I do what I do matters. And I believe why I do what I do matters. I believe it matters more than the outcome of what I do.
Suppose like Sisyphus, my life’s work is futile and never ending, and yet it is not a punishment but a calling. Even if others succeed in the same field of endeavor and yet I find myself starting at the bottom of the hill each morning, what I do still matters if it is what God has called me to do.
Loving others is ultimately why this life matters. Not how successful we are. Not how many people respond to our love. Not how or whether God ever rewards us in ways that we would like to be rewarded, for loving others. Jesus is the ultimate example of loving others and look how that ended up for Him.
Matter is a funny word. It can be a general term for all that is visable and touchable. Yet we know from the study of quantum physics, all that is visable and touchable is not matter but energy! The other completely different meaning for the word matter is does it affect anything or does it have weight on anything. As in “Does it matter if I go now or later?”. Yet in light of quantum physics, they are very similar meanings. Since there is no such thing as matter, matter doesn’t matter.
But things do matter. A strainer is very different from a cup. Yes they are both energy but if i try to drink from a strainer it will be a frustrating experience, and just as frustrating if I try to strain something through a cup. Even though they are both energy, they take different forms and it matters what form that energy takes in order for me to use it well. A cup is useful for drinking until one day it drops and shatters and we throw it out. It is still energy, it is just in a different form. But it is now sitting in a trash heap somewhere because it lost it’s usefulness. Usefulness can only be developed by doing what matters.
So what does it matter what I do with my days under the sun? I don’t think it matters much whether I am a strainer or a cup. Perhaps what matters is that I am useful. Useful for what? God doesn’t need me to do anything so why should I worry about being useful. Is that perhaps the whole point of being here and going through this world. Of being a soul and living in a flesh and blood body that fails and dies eventually. We don’t ask to be born here. As far as we know, we didn’t consciously ask to be here. Yet once here, there is no escape. We have to fit ourselves with a purpose of loving others. Perhaps in obedience to God but only in the sense that God created this world and that is how we are created to live and God is trying his best to help us understand that. But more so we live that way because that is the shape of the world we live in. Look at how horrible a place it is and can be when all that is not done out love spreads across the globe! And imagine what a paradise the world could be if there was only love. If man only knew how to love others. Yet we have been given free will and even when we choose love, we have yet to figure out how to defend ourselves against those who choose evil while still loving them.
So I say all that to say that, yes, it does matter what I do. Even if I don’t have it all figured out, what I do still matters. I don’t have to have it all figure out, that is God’s job. But what I do have figured out, I can act on. I may not know everything about my neighbor, but I can love him. I can see needs and meet them and trust that God is working everything out for the good (Romans 8:28). I don’t have a clue how prayer works but I can still pray for my neighbor, friends, family and enemies. I am called to pray so I believe that praying matters whether I understand it or not. Denying myself, laying down my life for others, I haven’t really seen where it has done a whole lot of good. But I am not commanded to understand it, I am just called to do it, so it matters. I believe that the Holy Spirit will give me wisdom over time to understand all things. And I believe that it is more blessed to live as Christ with a deeper understanding of the affect my actions have on things. But if I am going to wait till I have that understanding before I take action, I will never take action. It is in the trusting of God and taking of action that understanding begins to reveal herself. (John 8:31-32)
